Lando Norris tests F3 car to prepare for F1 return
Lando Norris has been privately testing a Formula 3 car this week to help step up his preparations for the upcoming Formula 1 season.
The McLaren driver teamed up with the Carlin squad with which he won the 2017 European Formula 3 championship for a test outing at Silverstone to get back on-track and intensity his preparations for the 2020 F1 season.
Earlier this week, F1 confirmed the heavily-delayed campaign will begin with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5, the first of eight European races to take place in a 10-week period between July and early September.
Lando Norris has been privately testing a Formula 3 car this week to help step up his preparations for the upcoming Formula 1 season.
The McLaren driver teamed up with the Carlin squad with which he won the 2017 European Formula 3 championship for a test outing at Silverstone to get back on-track and intensity his preparations for the 2020 F1 season.
Earlier this week, F1 confirmed the heavily-delayed campaign will begin with the Austrian Grand Prix on July 5, the first of eight European races to take place in a 10-week period between July and early September.
By the time the new season starts, drivers will have not had the chance to drive their F1 cars for nearly six months, having last got behind the wheel during pre-season testing in February.
To help build up to F1’s return to action following the enforced break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Norris tested a Dallara Formula 3 car with the Carlin outfit he raced for throughout his junior career after the UK’s lockdown measures have slowly begun to be eased.
The Briton also intends to spend time in a kart to work on his neck muscles before what is expected to be a gruelling F1 season gets underway.
Here’s a familiar face....
— Carlin (@CarlinRacing) June 3, 2020
Just like the old days! pic.twitter.com/dWF1WP2xAr
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast prior to his F3 test, Norris said: “I’ve got an F3 test coming up and I'm doing some karting next week, just something to get my body going again.
“It's just getting the body back into that physical feeling of the G force and everything like that, to get that muscle memory back and working as it should do... but it's also a bit of a shock to the system to get back into doing that as well.
“Driving anything that you can push and go flat-out [in] is going to be a good feeling.”
Red Bull’s Alex Albon is also planning to test an old F3 car before the first grand prix of the year in July, while Williams driver George Russell intends to get some single-seater running in.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen has been making the most of Denmark’s lockdown restrictions being eased to start karting, while AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly has visited a kart track in Dubai.
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